Telecommunication devices, such as wired and wireless telephones, softphones, speakerphones and mobile telephones typically have a variety of settings for device features/functions and for temporally changing the status of communication device operations. Communication device settings include, for example, speaker or microphone volume level, whether the speaker or microphone is activated, whether call forwarding is activated, the date and time settings, whether do not disturb is activated, the coverage path (i.e., where incoming calls will be forwarded if they are not answered), the starting and stopping times for time-dependent settings, the extent to which the battery is charged and/or the time remaining on the charge and the digital encoding algorithm currently in use (e.g., G.711, G.729, etc.). Communication device operational statuses include, for example, what, if any, lines are active, what lines have callers on hold, whether any new or old messages are enqueued, identification information associated with callers, the duration of the call, the length of time a call has been on hold, and the number or names of parties on a conference call. Information about settings and statuses of the communications device is typically obtained visually by enabled/disabled LEDs or LCDs and/or by textual or graphic information on a CRT/VDT display.
In many applications, information about the feature settings and operational status of a communication device, such as a telephone, is difficult for users to obtain. Visually impaired people, for example, cannot see the statuses of the LEDs, LCD's or CRTs/VDTs. Older telephones used electro-mechanical or locking buttons, such as the Western Electric 1A2 key system, which are tactilely discernible by visually impaired users. Such buttons have been replaced by momentary-contact, non-locking buttons for reasons of cost and the inability to remotely enable or disable the function corresponding to the buttons' physical positions. Many governments are now requiring information associated with communication devices to be accessible by the visually impaired. As of Jun. 25, 2001, for example, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1998 requires communication devices supplied to the U.S. government to have mechanically operated controls or keys that are discernible not only visually but also through touch or sound. A viable solution is urgently required to comply with such governmental requirements. In other applications, the increasing miniaturization of communication devices has presented difficulties for users to obtain setting and status information. The devices are often too small for users to readily and conveniently discern desired setting and status information. In yet other applications, users have difficulty in obtaining setting and status information due to remote access of a telephony system from an endpoint with limited display capabilities. An example of the former case is a situation where an employee seeks to access an office telephony system from a remote telephone. From the remote telephone, the employee is often unable to acquire status information about the current configuration of the telephony system, e.g., who is holding on what line, etc. An example of the latter case is a situation where a wireless telephone user is driving while trying to manipulate a wireless phone.